You're close but still a bit strawmanny. If we want poor kids to have better dental outcomes we should do more than just flouridate. We should find out why the poor have worse dental outcomes and address the root problem(s), which I would imagine in the US is something like soda consumption or lack of dentists in poor areas.
What is strawman in my comment? I'm genuinely interested.
> We should find out why the poor have worse dental outcomes and address the root problem
The root problem is that parents that are absent, either for noble reasons (working multiple low-wage jobs) or less noble reasons (addiction, abandonment) will not have the presence to enforce good dental hygiene.
There will always be some subset of parents that are more or less absent, and the main solution that exists for that in the US currently i.e. the foster care system has measurably terrible outcomes, and so it is only applied in the most egregious cases.
Why should we let perfect be the enemy of good here? I'm all for removing fluoride from the water, once it has no benefit on the population. But currently, it has a huge benefit, just on people who are least likely to advocate for it.
"You're just pushing your "Benevolent But Superior Intelligence" onto people" is an appeal to emotion, not a solution to real problems that real children face.
More emotionally: it's fucking embarrassing we let bullshit arguments like this hurt people in real life.
I've never thought much about it as tap water tastes nasty to me, but it does seem like legit scientists are still studying the issue, as of 2023.[0] Course we over produce scientists and so much of science is low efficiency, but they're getting funding and being published none-the-less.
The "let's have a nuanced debate and use reason and intellect" bias is useful in most contexts. Bold claims, hot takes, that's the future. Citations can be ai'd now.
Not much story here. States can't or don't want to track people outside the state, and it's tricky handling children of divorced parents who span states. There is little incentive for consumers to do their official duty by disenrolling, or for states to do their part and audit (it could decrease the federal funds they get to administer).
It also says much of the double counting was due to,
"The federal government’s emergency pandemic rules made it much harder for states to disenroll beneficiaries. The Journal’s analysis found that double payments nationwide increased from $814 million in 2019 to $2.1 billion in 2021. The emergency rules were revoked in 2023."
What's the total size of medicaid budget again?
We do need better systems to track, audit, and control but all of that is contrary the strong populist thirst for making disenrollments harder, and everything more inclusive.
Maybe the world has just moved on and standards from the past just aren't as valuable now as they once were?
Boeing being better now than in the 90s doesn't mean that the stock shouldn't drop, because competitors and expectations are higher now than in the 90s.
Are pre-emptive blanket pardons traditional? I can see how Trump or some future president might abuse that, especially if autopen is allowed so that thousands or even tens of thousands can be pardoned at once to prevent subsequent political lawfare.
If only there was a credible news agency or group of influential elites that could have given some pushback against the "misleading" of the public, I would gladly subscribe. It seems like that may be an even bigger problem than GoF lab leaks; an unintelligent intelligentsia.
A lot of the change in behavior probably corresponds to more work from home and social isolation. I haven't been to a sit down restaurant in over 5 years, but I still grab a to go meal about once a quarter. With inflation, I'm less price sensitive too when I buy my quarterly big mack, so I go for it and supersize, may get mcnuggets too. So work from home and inflation probably factor in.
